


Cuckoo

by VolxdoSioda



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Dubious Consent Due To Identity Issues, Gen, Hades Is Doing His Best, Past Relationship(s), Trickery & Deceit, Unhealthy Relationships, Zeus Being a Bastard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 12:35:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22776793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VolxdoSioda/pseuds/VolxdoSioda
Summary: The cuckoo bird is considered what one might call a brood parasite. It lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, and when the chick emerges, it will be considered no different than any other young fledgling what ought to have emerged. Several times, it has been witnessed that the cuckoo chicks will emerge faster than the eggs of the nest-holder, and proceed to push the eggs of the original bird out, so as to be the one, and only offspring to be fed and cared for.This bird is considered a symbol of Hera, she of divine wrath, and how terribly ironic, considering her god-husband's wandering ways.
Relationships: Hades & Persephone (Hades Video Game), Hades & Zagreus (Hades Video Game), Hades & Zeus (Hades Video Game)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 81





	Cuckoo

"Did you know?"

In the cold stillness of Ixion's light, the words are breathed, more than spoken. Hades does not turn from where he watches the glow of the spring, the way the water rushes over rocks and down, to fill the pool, only to then turn and flow in another way. Always, eternally, in a circle.

"Did you _know?!" _And this time, Zagreus' voice cracks. Horror, terror, a thick layer of despair. Hades closes his eyes, counts his heartbeats. Tries to imagine himself in Zagreus' place. Young, desperate for answers, desperate for a trail to follow. A father who, to all eyes, hates him.

A father that is not his father. 

Zeus is a bastard of the highest order. This, Hades has tried to teach Zagreus before the truth could come out. Evidently, he has failed.

"Answer me!" Zagreus bellows, and Varatha manifests in the form it appeared to Zagreus in. It glows, radiating a power cloaked in awareness, in rage. It senses its owner's emotions, and amplifies itself. _Tell him the truth, _Varatha demands, as only a God-slayer can. 

"Yes."

Hades finally turns. Zagreus stares at him in mute silence, cheeks painted red with temper, mismatched eyes burning with shock. He doesn't want to believe any of it, but Hades can see one of the Fates' prophecies clenched in the hand not holding Varatha. The Fates don't - can't - lie. 

"I knew the moment I saw you," Hades says, and for once he does not speak in temper, but with the quiet grace of his station. With the voice of a man who has known this whole time the terrible truth and come to terms. He knew when Zeus slapped his shoulders and said with eyes that laughed, _"Too bad brother, but you shall tend to the Underworld well, I am sure!" _When attempts at communication started badly, and continued badly, and every attempt to end it just made Zeus push harder.

When Persephone had shown up one day in his Underworld, claiming he promised her things he never did, showing a ring he never gave, and swollen with a child that she said was his. 

_"You sought me out, husband," _She'd said, all wry humor and amusement. _"You promised me safety here, did you not?"_

Gods like to play tricks. But Zeus is crueler than most. Demeter would not give Persephone to him, and so he'd found another way around her and Hera. Another way to punish Hades for not bowing to his superiority. 

Another young woman who hadn't realized until much, much later, that there had been a trick played.

"Then _why?" _Zagreus demands, harsh. "Why raise me-- why keep me here, with you, when she--"

"Because she abandoned you," and now Hades does raise his voice, just a little. Zagreus quiets, in a rare moment of understanding. "Because Zeus could not claim you without Hera killing you, without Hera _knowing, _and Persephone could not face any of her family after what he did to her. Because I am many things - but I am not a monster."

The birth had been bloody, and Persephone had wept throughout it all.

"_Take it away from me," _she'd sobbed, when it was over, and Zagreus had cried his arrival to a world that would never want him. _"Get it away, I don't want it."_

And so Hades had. In his arms, Zagreus had been so small, so utterly helpless. But he'd held none of his brother's colors - no blond hair, no piercing eyes, no clear skin. Small, and pale, and freckled, and so utterly innocent.

Hades was many things, but he was not a monster. And so he'd gone to Nyx, and told her that Persephone did not want her son, and he'd gotten a room prepared, and there Zagreus had stayed. Raised among Nyx's true children, small and helpless as Persephone gathered her things and fled back to higher ground. To a world away from everyone.

"You hate me," Zagreus accuses. "Why should I bother to stay, when you--"

"If I thought it would help," Hades offers, "I would let you go. But seeing her will not give you answers, because as far as Persephone is concerned, you do not exist. That chapter of her life is over, and if she has her way, she will never go back to it. Demeter would claim you, but she would have to alert Zeus to your existence, and that would bring Hera. Do you see _now, _what I have been trying to do?" He gestures to the pathway off to the side. "It is not about refusing you, child. It is about your _survival."_

"But you hate me. I'm...he...you don't like Zeus."

"I do not hate you. You test my patience, and my drive my temper, much as any child does to their parents. But I have never once looked at you with the eyes I look at my brother with, Zagreus. She did not want you, and Zeus, even if he could claim you, would make a poor parent. There are thousands of children out there like you, who are hidden away because Hera would kill them all. I have done my best, and I have expected much from you, like any parent who wants their children to succeed. Perhaps too much, at certain points. But you've grown up healthy and strong, with good friends and a family around you. I thought perhaps it would be enough."

In the face of this revelation though, he's left wondering if perhaps Zagreus shouldn't also be _happy. _

"...if I didn't seek her out, would they find me? If I just... wandered?"

"The Olympians would feel you, Zagreus. Even if you left merely to pursue your own life, they would feel you, and eventually, someone would find out. Assuming Zeus doesn't recognize you or try to bring trouble to your doorstep for existing, or Hera doesn't murder you in your sleep or turn you into something awful." There have been too many stories. "And if I had tried to tell you earlier, you would not have believed me. Or you would have done something stupid, like try to fight Zeus."

"I wouldn't have tried to fight Zeus."

"You would have challenged him." Of that, he's certain, because it's what _he _would have once done. 

Some of the temper and pain has left the boy. He's still hurt, still unsure, still floundering in the wake of the truth, but the wild rage that spurred him into speeding through the Underworld like Hermes has quieted.

"What happens now?" Zagreus asks, and he sounds as young as he looks. 

Hades sighs, and looks back towards Ixion. Tonight is a poor night for fighting, and truthfully Hades just wants his warm bed right now, and perhaps a bottle or six of nectar to warm him. "If I tell you to go home, will you actually listen?"

"Are you going to start yelling at me as soon as we get there?"

"No. The only thing I'm going to do is sleep. The shades can wait. We both need rest."

For once, Zagreus doesn't argue. He takes up his place to the right and a step behind Hades, and together they go back down, through Elysium, past Asphodel, and finally they reach Tartarus. It's only once they're nearing the sight of the House that Zagreus speaks again.

"What am I supposed to tell them?"

"Tell them you learned the truth."

"They'll hate me."

"They won't." Thanatos refuses to pick sides, but here at least, Hades knows the reaper well. He will stand by Zagreus, no matter what. Megaera might be more chilly about it, having known the pain brought about by Zeus's children twice now, but she will come around. Hypnos and Nyx will not care, nor Achilles, or any of the others in the House. "Tell them if you wish, or don't. But starting tomorrow, I will expect your help around the House."

"Fine."

They go their separate ways inside - Hypnos blinks at them both in surprise, looking from him to Zagreus and back again. But Zagreus doesn't rush to tell him anything, instead ducking down the hallway leading to his chambers with little more than a quiet "Good night" that Hades returns evenly. Cerberus whines as Hades passes him, and he reaches out to scratch the dog's heads. 

And then he goes to his own room, swigs down three bottles of nectar, and falls asleep.


End file.
